U.S. patent application number 13/846545 was filed with the patent office on 2014-06-26 for liquefied petroleum gas (lpg) bombe valve apparatus.
This patent application is currently assigned to KIA MOTORS CORPORATION. The applicant listed for this patent is HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY, KIA MOTORS CORPORATION. Invention is credited to Bu Yeol Ryu, Ju Tae Song.
Application Number | 20140174567 13/846545 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 50878935 |
Filed Date | 2014-06-26 |
United States Patent
Application |
20140174567 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Song; Ju Tae ; et
al. |
June 26, 2014 |
LIQUEFIED PETROLEUM GAS (LPG) BOMBE VALVE APPARATUS
Abstract
An LPG bombe valve apparatus includes a valve body, a check
valve, a cam, a cam rod and a converting mechanism. More
specifically, the valve body is disposed in an LPG bombe and having
a fuel channel therein for discharging fuel supplied from an LPG
line to the LPG bombe. The check valve is disposed in the fuel
channel, with one end supported by an elastic member to be pressed
to close the fuel channel. The cam is disposed within the check
valve, and the cam rod connects the cam with the check valve and
controls opening/closing of the check valve in accordance with
rotation of the cam. A converting mechanism has both ends connected
to the cam and a float of the LPG bombe converting vertical motion
of the float into rotational motion of the cam.
Inventors: |
Song; Ju Tae; (Hwaseong,
KR) ; Ryu; Bu Yeol; (Hwaseong, KR) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY
KIA MOTORS CORPORATION |
Seoul
Seoul |
|
KR
KR |
|
|
Assignee: |
KIA MOTORS CORPORATION
Seoul
KR
HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY
Seoul
KR
|
Family ID: |
50878935 |
Appl. No.: |
13/846545 |
Filed: |
March 18, 2013 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
137/522 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B60K 2015/03026
20130101; F17C 2223/033 20130101; F17C 2205/0335 20130101; F17C
2225/047 20130101; F17C 7/04 20130101; B60K 15/03 20130101; F17C
2270/0168 20130101; F17C 2223/047 20130101; F17C 2250/0626
20130101; F17C 2250/0413 20130101; F17C 2201/058 20130101; B60K
15/03006 20130101; F17C 2201/056 20130101; F17C 2221/035 20130101;
F17C 2265/066 20130101; Y10T 137/7876 20150401; F17C 2223/0153
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
137/522 |
International
Class: |
B60K 15/03 20060101
B60K015/03 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Dec 26, 2012 |
KR |
10-2012-0153736 |
Claims
1. An LPG bombe valve apparatus, comprising: a valve body disposed
in an LPG bombe and having a fuel channel therein for discharging
fuel supplied from an LPG line to the LPG bombe; a check valve
disposed in the fuel channel, with one end supported by an elastic
member which is pressed to close the fuel channel; a cam disposed
within the check valve; a cam rod connecting the cam with the check
valve and controlling the opening/closing of the check valve in
accordance with rotation of the cam; and a converting mechanism
wherein both ends are connected to the cam and a float within the
LPG bombe converts vertical motion of the float into rotational
motion of the cam.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the fuel channel extends from
a first side to a second side of the valve body and bends down at
90 degrees.
3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a back pressure generating
portion making a stratum with different cross-sectional areas is
formed in the fuel channel.
4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a back pressure generating
holder formed around the fuel channel is disposed at the fuel
channel and a gas-state hole is formed at a side of the back
pressure generating holder, so fuel is injected with a
predetermined ratio to a gas-state side of the LPG bombe.
5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a back pressure generating
portion making a stratum with different cross-sectional areas is
formed at the fuel channel, a back pressure generating holder is
formed around the fuel channel, and a gas-state hole is formed at a
side of the back pressure generating holder, so fuel is injected
with a predetermined ratio to a gas-state side of the LPG
bombe.
6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the cam is formed in a disk
shape having a predetermined height with a cut portion formed by
cutting a portion of a surface including an arc side, and the cam
rod opens/closes the check valve by a sliding motion while forming
a predetermined displacement when the cam rotates.
7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the portion coming in contact
with the cam rod of the cut portion is flat.
8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the converting mechanism is
implemented by a rack and pinion gear connecting the cam with the
float, so that as the float vertically moves, the cam rotates.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application claims under 35 U.S.C. .sctn.119(a) the
benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2012-0153736, filed
Dec. 26, 2012, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein
by reference.
BACKGROUND
[0002] (a) Technical Field
[0003] The present invention relates to a fuel tank for a vehicle
using Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) fuel, and more particularly, an
LPG bombe valve apparatus that consistently maintains a pressure of
an LPG bombe constant.
[0004] (b) Background Art
[0005] In the LPG vehicle using LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) as
fuel in the related art, LPG is vaporized and supplied to the
engine. However, sometimes LPI (Liquefied Petroleum Injection) that
directly injects LPG fuel in a liquid state under high pressure by
means of an injector is used to improve starting during winter. In
this case, a fuel pump may loose the ability of suction due to
cavitation, when there is an abrupt change in composition of the
fuel or temperature or pressure inside the LPG bombe while LPG fuel
is being refilled.
[0006] As such, a fuel tank has been proposed in which fuel is
supplied through both of a liquid-state discharge port formed at
the end of a filling pipe and a gas-state discharge port formed at
an upper portion of the filling pipe such that the pressure at a
gas-state side in an LPG bombe is kept constant, thereby preventing
a filling delay due to an increase in pressure at the gas-state
side.
[0007] FIG. 1 is a view showing an LPG bombe valve apparatus of the
related art and FIG. 2 is a view showing in detail the part A in
FIG. 1, in which as a float 70 moves up with fuel full, back
pressure is generated in a movable valve V and the movable valve V
moves forward, thereby cutting off the filled fuel.
[0008] However, back pressure is not generated in the movable valve
V, when the fuel is discharged in a liquid-state side at the lower
portion of the LPG bombe, so back pressure will not be generated
when the filling fuel forms a filling channel to the liquid-state
side. Therefore, the filling is not cut off appropriately and the
ratio of liquid state and gas state is not appropriately
distributed. Accordingly, the temperature or pressure of the LPG
bombe increases too and the pressure of the LPG bombe excessively
increases as well during filling, so it is difficult to refill the
fuel under severe conditions during the hot season.
[0009] Therefore, it is necessary to develop an LPG bombe valve
apparatus that appropriately distributes filling fuel to a liquid
state and a gas state so that the pressure of the LPG bombe may not
be excessively increased even under diverse environmental
conditions.
[0010] The description provided above as a related art of the
present invention is just for helping understanding the background
of the present invention and should not be construed as being
included in the related art known by those skilled in the art.
SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE
[0011] The present invention has been made in an effort to solve
the above problems and an object of the present invention is to
provide an LPG bombe valve apparatus that appropriately distributes
filling fuel to a liquid state and a gas state so that the pressure
of the LPG bombe may not be excessively increased even under
diverse environmental conditions.
[0012] In order to achieve the objects of the present invention, an
LPG bombe valve apparatus includes: a valve body disposed in an LPG
bombe and having a fuel channel therein for discharging fuel
supplied from an LPG line to the LPG bombe; a check valve disposed
in the fuel channel, with one end supported by an elastic member to
be pressed to close the fuel channel; a cam disposed at the other
side of the check valve; a cam rod connecting the cam with the
check valve and controlling the opening/closing of the check valve
in accordance with rotation of the cam; and a converting mechanism
wherein both ends are connected to the cam and a float of the LPG
bombe converting vertical motion of the float into rotational
motion of the cam.
[0013] The fuel channel may be extended to the left and right and
bent down at 90 degrees. Additionally, a back pressure generating
portion making a stratum with different cross-sectional areas may
be formed in the fuel channel. Furthermore, a back pressure
generating holder formed around the fuel channel may be disposed
within the fuel channel and a gas-state hole may be formed in a
side of the back pressure generating holder, so fuel may be
injected at a predetermined ratio to a gas-state side of the LPG
bombe.
[0014] Furthermore, a cam may be formed in a disk shape having a
predetermined height with a cut portion formed by cutting a portion
of a surface including an arc side, and the cam rod may open/close
the check valve by a sliding motion while forming a predetermined
displacement when the cam rotates. The portion coming in contact
with the cam rod of the cut portion may be made flat.
[0015] Finally, the converting mechanism may be implemented by a
rack and pinion gear connecting the cam with the float, thereby as
the float vertically moves, the cam may rotate.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0016] The above and other features of the present invention will
now be described in detail with reference to certain exemplary
embodiments thereof illustrated the accompanying drawings which are
given hereinbelow by way of illustration only, and thus are not
limitative of the present invention, and wherein:
[0017] FIG. 1 is a view showing an LPG bombe valve apparatus of the
related art;
[0018] FIG. 2 is a view showing the part A of FIG. 1 in detail;
[0019] FIG. 3 is a view showing an LPG bombe valve apparatus
according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;
[0020] FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line B-B of
FIG. 3; and
[0021] FIG. 5 is a view showing an inside of the LPG bombe.
[0022] It should be understood that the appended drawings are not
necessarily to scale, presenting a somewhat simplified
representation of various preferred features illustrative of the
basic principles of the invention. The specific design features of
the present invention as disclosed herein, including, for example,
specific dimensions, orientations, locations, and shapes will be
determined in part by the particular intended application and use
environment.
[0023] In the figures, reference numbers refer to the same or
equivalent parts of the present invention throughout the several
figures of the drawing.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0024] It is understood that the term "vehicle" or "vehicular" or
other similar term as used herein is inclusive of motor vehicles in
general such as passenger automobiles including sports utility
vehicles (SUV), buses, trucks, various commercial vehicles,
watercraft including a variety of boats and ships, aircraft, and
the like, and includes hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles,
combustion, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, hydrogen-powered
vehicles and other alternative fuel vehicles (e.g. fuels derived
from resources other than petroleum).
[0025] The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing
particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of
the invention. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and
"the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the
context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood
that the terms "comprises" and/or "comprising," when used in this
specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers,
steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude
the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers,
steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. As
used herein, the term "and/or" includes any and all combinations of
one or more of the associated listed items.
[0026] An LPG bombe valve apparatus according to exemplary
embodiments of the present invention is described hereafter with
reference to the accompanying drawings.
[0027] FIG. 3 is a view showing an LPG bombe valve apparatus
according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, FIG.
4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line B-B of FIG. 3, and
FIG. 5 is a view showing the inside of the LPG bombe. The LPG bombe
valve apparatus includes a valve body 100 disposed in an LPG bombe
and having a fuel channel 200 therein for discharging fuel supplied
from an LPG line to the LPG bombe. A check valve 400 is disposed in
the fuel channel 200, with one end supported by an elastic member
to be pressed to close the fuel channel 200. A cam 500 is disposed
at the other side of the check valve 400. A cam rod 600 connects
the cam 500 with the check valve 400 and controls the
opening/closing of the check valve 400 in accordance with rotation
of the cam 500. A converting mechanism 800 is also provided wherein
both ends are connected to the cam 500 and a float 700 of the LPG
bombe converting vertical motion of the float 700 into rotational
motion of the cam 500.
[0028] As shown in FIG. 4, the cam 500 has a disk shape having a
predetermined height with a cut portion 510 formed by cutting off a
portion of the surface having an arc side, so when the cam 500
rotates, the cam rod 600 forms a predetermined displacement and
slides to the left and right of the fuel channel 200, thereby
opening/closing the check valve 400. Further, the portion coming in
contact with the cam rod 600 of the cut portion 510 is formed flat
so that the cam rod 600 may stably come in contact with the cut
portion 510 of the cam 500.
[0029] In general, liquid fuel is injected into an LPG bombe.
However, when the liquid fuel is fully transferred to a
liquid-state side at the lower portion of the LPG bombe, the
pressure of the LPG bombe increases excessively, so the internal
pressure of the LPG bombe increases higher than the pressure for
filling the fuel under severe conditions in the hot season, and
thus fuel filling is not available. Such a problem occurs because
back pressure is not generated sufficiently when a back pressure
type valve is used for appropriately distributing and filling the
fuel to a liquid-state side and a gas-state side in the LPG bombe,
so it is difficult to cut off the fuel. Accordingly, the
illustrative embodiment of the present inventions rotates the cam
500 to ensure a sufficient amount of back pressure is
generated.
[0030] Further, in order to appropriately distribute fuel to the
liquid-state side and the gas-state side during filling of fuel, it
is necessary to keep a constant ratio of the fuel discharged to the
liquid-state side and the fuel discharged to the gas-state side,
but the ratio may change in accordance with the kinds of vehicles
or the environment in which vehicles travel, so it depends on the
designers. However, in the LPG bombe valve apparatus according to
the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, fuel is
distributed with the optimum ratio, 5% to the gas-state side and
95% to the liquid-state side.
[0031] The fuel channel 200 extends to the left and right and bends
down at 90 degrees in a filling valve body in order to fill the LPG
bombe with LPG fuel. A back pressure generating portion 210 is
formed in a stratum form with the cross-sectional area decreased
and increased at the portion where the fuel channel 200 bent down
in order to inject 5% of fuel to the gas-state side, a back
pressure generating holder 900 is formed around the fuel channel
200, and a gas-state hole 910 is formed in a side of the back
pressure generating holder 900, thereby injecting the fuel to the
gas-state side of the LPG bombe. The back pressure generating
portion 210 and the back pressure generating holder 900 may be
separately or simultaneously disposed and one or more gas-holes 910
may be formed.
[0032] FIG. 5 shows in detail the float 700 and the converting
mechanism 800. The converting mechanism 800 is implemented by a
rack and pinion gear connecting the cam 500 with the float 700,
therefore when the float 700 vertically moves, the cam 500 will
rotate. Consequently, when the LPG bombe is being filled with fuel,
the float 700 is positioned at the lower portion and the cam rod
600 comes in contact with the arc shape portion of the normal side
of the cam 500, thereby pressing the elastic member 300 and opening
the check valve 400. Accordingly, the fuel is injected through one
or more apertures formed at the cam rod 600 of the check valve 400.
The injected fuel is ejected by 5% through the back pressure
generating holder 900 after passing the back pressure generating
portion 210 through the fuel channel 200 and the other 95% flows to
the liquid-state side through the fuel channel 200 and is the
filled.
[0033] The amount of fuel gradually increases during the filling,
so the float 700 moves up and the vertical motion of the float 700
rotates the cam 500 through the rack and pinion gear of the
converting mechanism 800. When the cam rod 600 is inserted into the
cut portion 510 of the cam 500 with full filling of the fuel in the
LPG bombe, as the cam 500 rotates, the cam rod 600 slides to the
cam 200 by the elastic force of the elastic member 300 and moves
the check valve 400 to the cam 200. Since the check valve 400 is
formed in a shape that can close the fuel channel by being fitted
in the fuel channel, the fuel channel is closed by the check valve
and cut off so as not to be filled anymore.
[0034] According to the LPG bombe valve apparatus of an exemplary
embodiment of the present invention, since the valve opened/closed
by a cam is implemented instead of a back pressure valve, it is
possible to prevent improper cutting-off of fuel due to poor
generation of back pressure in the LPG bombe, improve the
performance of distributing fuel to the liquid-state side and the
gas-state side such that the fuel is distributed to the
liquid-state side and the gas-state side by disposing a back
pressure generating portion and a back pressure generating holder
in a fuel channel such that the filling fuel is distributed with a
predetermined ratio, and overcome the difficulty of refilling fuel
due to excessive increase in internal pressure of the LPG bombe
during the filling.
[0035] The invention has been described in detail with reference to
preferred embodiments thereof. However, it will be appreciated by
those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these
embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the
invention, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and
their equivalents.
* * * * *